IYC Joliet repurposing project receives deadline

JOLIET – A nine-month deadline to start operations at The Joliet Mental Health Treatment Center would be in place once a state budget is signed into law, the Illinois Department of Corrections confirmed this week.

The latest development in the effort to repurpose the former Illinois Youth Center on McDonough Street stems from the ongoing Ashoor Rasho vs. John Baldwin class action lawsuit that began in 2007.

In December, the IDOC announced it had reached a preliminary settlement with lawyers representing 11,000 mentally ill inmates in the suit, which alleges the state provided inadequate treatment.

Nicole Wilson, spokeswoman for IDOC, said in an email Wednesday a final hearing on the case will be held sometime in May.

The JMHTC start-up deadline is in accordance with language in the preliminary settlement agreement, Wilson said.

The tentative agreement has a deadline for opening the JMHTC nine months after the FY 2017 budget is enacted, said state Sen. Pat McGuire, D-Joliet, who found out about the date during a Senate Appropriation I Committee hearing this week.

As negotiations have evolved, various parts of the repurposing plan have been tweaked from earlier figures.

“As the department moves closer to implementation, the plan may be appropriately modified to ensure that staff and offenders are safe and secure,” Wilson said in the email.

The original annual operating costs of JMHTC were projected in 2014 to be $30 million, but McGuire said the IDOC has now requested $38 million in the proposed fiscal 2017 budget, which starts July 1.

Wilson confirmed the requested amount and said the money would cover staffing and contracted medical services.

Projections in 2014 estimated a staff of 400 for JMHTC that included correctional officers, sergeants, lieutenants, shift supervisors, qualified mental health professionals, behavioral health technicians, registered nurses and psychiatrists.

The latest estimate, according to McGuire, is 320. Initial estimates also included just over 300 beds for male inmates, but that figure is now 360.

“Throughout the litigation process, the IDOC worked with various experts to craft projections for staffing plans, while acknowledging that staffing for a new facility is a flexible process,” Wilson said in the email.

Construction costs

Subcontractors have been working on the property since summer 2015.

Construction on the JMHTC is currently expected to be “substantially completed” by July, Wilson said. The initial projection for completion was early 2016.

Records from the Illinois Comptroller’s website show the Capital Development Board – which oversees state capital projects – has paid Blinderman Construction Company nine times since June for work at 2848 W. McDonough St.

In all, $8.32 million has been paid out to Blinderman – or about 62 percent of the project’s $13.35 million contract.

The last payment, for $1.75 million, was filed Wednesday.

McGuire said he was happy to see progress on the facility, noting everyone is safer if mental illness is treated.

“Providing effective treatment to mentally ill offenders is the right thing to do,” he said. “It’s also an investment in public safety. Most of the men are going to re-enter our communities once they serve their time or are paroled.”

• Herald-News Editor Kate Schott contributed to this report.